Writing.Com General Discussion

Hey Fhionnuisce ,

Commas definitely cause confusion. I find that, even though I understand commas and use the correctly a good part of the time, when I start to think about them or explain them, I get all confuzzled and I'm not sure what it is that I know or don't know! The wrong ways look right and vise verse. Anyhow...

I'll speak to poor Dave here:

"Dave ran inside the house, still dripping wet from the rain, and grabbed his keys, his wallet, and his phone."

Every comma is necessary in that sentence (and I'm an Oxford Comma gal, so I insist on the comma before "wallet". I agree with the previous poster that you can remove "his" after the first use. The reason you use a set of commas to segment off "still dripping wet form the rain" is that it's an aside and not important to that sentence. The sentence is correct without it, but it adds appropriate detail and color to inform the reader, so in it goes with commas. (You can also use dashes...but generally you do that when you want to emphasize it a lot more than it would be with just commas. But that's a conversation for a different time )

Commas get even more confusing when you're talking about dependent and independent clauses and which come first in the sentence (because it's position determines whether a comma is used or not).

WRT lists: yes, use semi-colons when the items in the list include comma'd items. For instance:

"My camping meal plan includes: rice and beans; hamburgers with tomatoes, lettuce, and pickles; hobo stew; and chicken and rice bowls."

Is punctuating a list confusing? Yes. Keep in mind punctuation is there to make it easy for the reader to understand what you, the writer, meant when you wrote it.

My philosophy is that it's ok to break the rules, as long as you know you're breaking them!

HTHs!
--
1UppyEar

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